Before you know it, your house and its front yard might have fallen a little behind!
This is a shame if you’re planning to continue living there, because nobody wants to live in a dull house, but it’s doubly a shame if you’re planning on selling.
You see, a house’s attractiveness to buyers is known as “curb appeal”, and you’ll want some big curb appeal in your front yard if you want to make a sale.
But how can you rejuvenate your front yard? Well, the mid-century modern style of design is always a brilliant way to give your home a slightly retro feel, while still being more than stylish enough to seem modern.
In our handy guide below, we’ve got 19 design and decoration tips that will give your front yard some serious mid-century modern curb appeal.
Some of them are easy, while others will need a bit of time. Either way, your front yard is going to be attracting looks from all over the neighborhood by the end!
What Is Mid-Century Modern Design?
Before we start, let’s have a look at what the term mid-century modern actually means.
As you can tell, it’s all about design choices that would look right at home in the middle of the 20th century – roughly between 1945 and 1969.
This was the post-World War II era for the United States, and it saw a whole range of new and exciting design choices.
These ranged from the design of interiors to the overall architectural design of buildings, as well as the appearance of graphic design and various products.
Visually, mid-century modern has various “looks”! It’s got a minimalist feel, for a start, with neutral and bold colors.
On top of that, it uses shapes that are geometric and organic, with clean lines. As you can tell, it’s extremely stylish but uncluttered!
19 Tips To Give Your Front Yard Mid-Century Curb Appeal
Seasonal Flowers
A great way to give the bulk of your front yard is by planting seasonal flowers.
By this, we mean that you can plant flowers whose color and style reflect the mood of the season.
For example, for summer you can plant a variety of fiery orange and yellow flowers, while in the winter you can prioritize frosty and cozy flowers that are blue.
Come spring time, there’s nothing that says “spring” more than a daffodil! And when it’s fall, you can plan marigolds and asters.
It’s a good idea to have some evergreen shrubs (which are shrubs that stay green all year), just to give areas of the front yard a bit of consistency annually.
Install A Hose Reel!
It might not have occurred to you, but a hose reel can really change your front yard up.
How so? Well, when you just have a hose on its own, it will usually be sprawled out all over the lawn like a snake, or tossed into a corner.
There’s no neat way to fold up a hose when you put it away, so don’t even try!
Instead, a hose reel is the best way forward. Not only are they stylish, with a mid-century modern feel if you get the correct design, but they’re also very practical and tidy.
It attaches onto a wall and keeps your hose in a neat circle, which looks very elegant and interesting.
Make sure to buy one that is good quality – it’s worth the investment.
Clean Your Decorations And Awnings
A sign of a front yard and garden that has fallen out of care is the awnings.
If you see a yard with decorations that have lost their color, covered in muck and dust over time, then it’s clear that they haven’t been tended to in a while.
Awnings and decorations are a way to vitalize your garden, easily bringing it color and stylish design, as well as a bit of character.
Seriously, you can use the decorations to reflect your personal interests, like statues related to things you like.
As for the awnings, they can lighten up your windows and doors.
But not if they’re dirty. It’s easy for these things to get dirty and dull over time, and it really takes away from the life that they once brought to the yard.
Therefore, to bring back some life and color to your yard, make sure to wipe, clean, and wash your awnings and decorations.
Paint Your Decorations And Awnings
Once you’ve cleaned your decorations and awnings, why not give them a fresh coat of paint?
For awnings, you can only do this if they’re plastic, though.
Over time, the color of things will fade. A fresh coat of paint can bring them back to their former shining glory!
Similarly, painting them can allow you to make them mid-century modern style.
If your plastic awning is the wrong color scheme, simply sand it, prime it, and repaint it so that it matches your aesthetic!
Painting Your Lawn
You may have never thought of painting your lawn, but it has its benefits if it’s done the correct, safe way.
For example, if it usually goes dull in winter, then painting it will bring it back to life.
However, make sure that your grass paint is non-toxic.
Add Some Stylish Landscape Lighting
If you’ve put a lot of time and effort into redesigning your front yard, you want it to be seen.
Landscape lighting makes a front yard much clearer, lighting up all of your hard work, showing off all the greatest features of the garden.
By installing some landscape lights that are in a mid-century modern style, you can position them so that they light up the important parts: your house, pathways, trees, etc.
Spread Mulch Or Barkdust
A great way to quickly and easily brighten up your front yard flower beds is by spreading some mulch or barkdust over them.
These are loose bits of material that go on soil’s surface, specifically being old tree bark in the case of barkdust.
By adding a layer of one of these, it will make the color of your plants and flowers pop a lot more, because they’re contrasting against a different texture of ground now.
If you use some flattened cardboard before you add the layer of mulch or barkdust, it will help to keep any weeds down.
Filling In The Cracks In Your Driveway
Speaking of weeds, you might have encountered the annoying situation of weeds growing between the cracks in your driveway.
Some driveways will have more cracks than others, but these are a blessing for weeds, because it gives them more places to grow out of – which is not a blessing for you.
To stop the nuisance, you can fill in the cracks in your driveway.
How so? Thankfully, it’s just an easy case of using some cement filler, and depositing it into each of the cracks.
After a while, they’ll be sealed up and the weeds will stop coming!
Mid-Century Modern Paint Schemes For The Building
Repainting your house (or shed, etc.) to be in a mid-century modern color scheme and style is a great way to give your front yard some curb appeal.
The buildings by your front yard are a huge part of it, and if their design is noticeably different from the rest of the yard, then it’s going to undercut the whole aesthetic.
As a result, it’s a good idea to try painting the building in a mid-century modern color aesthetic.
What do we mean by this? Well, there are certain combinations of complimentary colors that define the mid-century modern style of design.
For example, a gray and some beige/yellow work well together. On the other hand, a soft orange and plenty of yellow also complement each other nicely.
If you paint your building, or at least its front, in a dark brown, then you’ll want to find the colors and designs that match.
So what works? Well, if you’ve got some windows, then you can do wide vertical stripes that go in line with them, and paint them a solid pale blue.
However, that’s not all. To really make the blue pop against the brown, it’s a good idea to add white trim around the edges of the stripes and windows, which keeps it all very calm and serene.
On top of that, add while trip to the line of the roof, so it contrasts with the brown.
Pruning Your Shrubs Into Shape
Another easy way to really give your front yard some mid-century modern style is by pruning your shrubs into specific shapes.
Most people will just leave their hedges in regular hedge patterns, like long rectangles. This is usually fine, but why not jazz things up?
You can cut a bush into any shape, and it will bring such character to your front garden.
So, you can prune your shrubs into mid-century modern shapes. A great and easy one is a simple sphere.
That’s right, if you trim your hedge into the shape of an enlarged ping-pong ball, then it immediately gives it a bit of mid-century retro charm.
This technique is known as “cloud” pruning, because it makes your hedges look like little fluffy clouds.
Even more dreamy! To do it, simply get your hedge cutters and carefully cut around the hedge, rounding off the edges and making it circular.
Adding A Mid-Century Privacy Screen
A privacy screen is always a great addition to a garden, because it’s both stylish and simple.
These screens can be positioned in your garden so that neighbors and passersby aren’t able to see you relaxing in the yard, keeping you private and out of sight.
In that way, they’re a bit like a fence, only they can stand on their own too.
However, you can make or buy a privacy screen that’s in the style of mid-century modern design.
By this, it’ll be something smart and minimalist, like a large wooden fence with little straight-line slits in it.
Remember, mid-century modern loves its lines – no complicated, cluttered angles here.
If you’re handy with DIY, you can make your own privacy screen.
The benefit of this is that you can design it however you like, with your own stylistic flourishes.
On the other hand, if DIY isn’t your skill, then there are plenty of mid-century modern privacy screens that you can find available for sale.
Dress Your Windows With Double-Sided Curtains
Since the building in your front yard is going to contribute a lot to its overall appearance, then you’ll need to make sure that every part of the building is neatly dressed. This includes the windows.
However, a lot of curtains are only single sided, with a nice design on one side and the other side left blank and dull.
Thankfully, though, you can buy some curtains that are double-sided…or you can make them yourself!
It’s fairly easy, too, if you’re good at sewing. Simply get your two pieces of material/fabric and sew them together, back to back.
This way, both sides will have a nice design on them, bringing your windows to life.
Make sure that you buy a fabric that’s got a mid-century modern type design or color to them.
Mid-Century Modern Mailbox
This is a simple one to do that makes such a difference.
Most mailboxes these days are daily boring, because they’re designed to just take your mail and nothing more. Well, what if you made them more stylish?
When it comes to updating your mailbox so that it’s in a mid-century modern design, you’ve got two options.
Firstly, your mailbox might already be in a shape that’s vaguely suggestive of the mid-century modern period.
If this is the case, simply repaint it into one of the bright, popping colors of the style, and add some retro-looking house numbers to it.
Alternatively, there are retro mailboxes that you can buy pre-made.
If you look online, you’ll be able to find mailboxes that fit the mid-century modern aesthetic, and they’ll give your front yard an extra dose of curb appeal.
Improving Your Front Porch
If your house has a front porch, then you’ll want it to match the whole mid-century modern vibe that you’re going for.
A front porch attracts lots of eyes, so it needs to be kept tidy and neat. No rotting wood, no dusty chairs!
On top of that, add some stylish furniture (chairs, small table) of the aesthetic, as well as a nice arrangement of plants.
Having little flowers in pots around the porch will make it appear even brighter.
Making A Landscape Berm
If you don’t know what a berm is, then it’s an elevated area in your front yard that;s using either soil or stone.
It has no surrounding wall, it’s just a plain elevated embankment that can be dressed with plants and flowers.
The benefit of adding one to your front yard is that it gives it an extra dose of lively beauty from the plants, and the height gives the yard a bit of texture and verticality.
Although it will take quite a bit of time and effort, the end results will really help to give your front yard some major curb appeal.
Plus, a landscape berm gives off a very big feeling of mid-century modern design, suiting houses of that period.
Mid-Century Address Sign
Of course, you’ll also want to update your address sign into mid-century modern stylings!
By this, we mean you should buy a wooden board that’s in a retro shape.
After that, you will want to find a font of the period too. Finally, make sure you write out your address in letters, rather than numbers. It gives it an elegant, mid-century look!
Redesigning Your Door
Your door is an essential part of the house, so it must look right. To redesign it in mid-century modern style, repaint it in retro colors, and add a retro handle or retro shapes to the front!
Redesigning Your Garage Door
Speaking of doors, your garage door is a notable part of the house, so it’ll need to suit the mid-century modern design too!
You can do this either easily, by repainting it into a retro color or adding retro shapes, or you can take the difficult route: getting an entirely new door!
Lawn Edging
Lawn edging is when you distinctly mark the edges of your grass, which encourages the grass to stay neatly within the boundaries. Thankfully, an edger tool makes simple work of it!
Final Thoughts
A mid-century modern redesign will massively boost your front yard’s curb appeal! Use our tips for inspiration.
Hi, my name is Maisie Park and I have recently moved into the home I renovated with my husband. It took an entire year to get it just the way we wanted it, and I learned a thing or two along the way!
We started this project together with no prior experience in renovating houses or home improvements – I think the best I had was that I knew how to change a lightbulb.
Flash forward a year and here I am, creating a website to guide others through these challenges.
Please use my website as a source of inspiration for your own home – does your porch need a fresh lick of paint, by any chance? We all deserve to live in the house of our dreams, so what’s stopping you? Let’s get started!
